First President of Benson Stake

William Hendricks Lewis was a native of Illinois , a convert to the Church, pioneer of Utah , first Bishop of Lewiston , in Cache County Utah, and first President of Benson Stake.

William H. Lewis was born on a farm in Macoupin County Illinois on October I4 , I837. He was the son of Neriah and Rebecca Hendricks Lewis. When William was 9 years of age his parents Joined the LDS Church a few weeks later they moved to Nauvoo, the same year (1846).

THEY JOINED THE Saints in the exodus to the west and crossed Iowa to the Missouri River. The Lewis family spent the winter of 1846 and 1847 with Bishop Miller's Company at the camp of the Ponca Indians, northwest of Winter Quarters. They then moved to St. Joseph Missouri, where they remained four years in order to recoup their finances and obtain means to cross the plains. They arrived in Salt Lake Valley in October 1851.

Williams first home was in the 15th Ward in Salt Lake City. Subsequently the family moved to Centerville, Davis County. In November 1856, William was married to Martha Petty the young couple obtained land and built a home at Fort Harriman. Salt Lake County. There they lived and prospered until the summer of 1859 when William traveled north to explore the possibilities of Cache Valley, which was being opened for settlement at that time. He obtained land at Richmond and moved there in the fall of 1859.

He was always active in the Church, William H. Lewis was ordained a High Priest when he was 22 years of age and set apart as member of the High Council of Cache Valley Stake.

In I864 He made a trip back to the Missouri River, at the call of President Brigham Young, to assist emigrants who had arrived at that point without means to proceed further on their journey to Salt Lake Valley. He spent five months in this unselfish labor.

On the west side of Cache Valley west of Richmond, there was a large tract of land known as "poverty flat", before water for irrigation purposes was secured. In time this became one of the most fertile sections in Utah. William H. Lewis settled there in 1872 and was called to act as the presiding elder over the few families in the community. The next year the town was given the name of Lewiston, in his honor, in 1877 he was set apart as Bishop of the Ward.

When Benson Stake was organized in April 1901. Bishop Lewis was called to serve as the first President, he continued in this capacity until his death which occurred on 5 September 1905 in Lewiston Utah. He was 67 years of age.

At his death the Deseret News said of him. "He was cheerful without being frivolous, serious without being melancholy, religious without being pious, in his death the Lewiston Ward has lost a model Bishop, Benson Stake an exemplary President and the State of Utah one of her most energetic and preserving pioneers."